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Hirano Aya seems pretty pumped for this role. She says in an interview that people will hear a new voice from her, that she wants people to be surprised it's her when they see the end credits.

Here are a couple of shots from the TAF live event that was mentioned earlier. She was interviewed about the show, then the "Twenty-faced Thief" apparently made her appear from a cloud of smoke, and she performed the ED, unnamed world, which comes out as a single on 23 April:

And here, from Aya's blog, are (l-r) the cast after the first recording session; Aya with Uchida Yuya, who plays the "Twenty-Faced Thief," and whom everyone on the set apparently calls "boss"; and Aya with "360," who does the OP.

As for the show itself, I have little idea what to expect. I'll just watch and react then. The director did Futakoi 1 and Kanban Musume, the writer did Major and KimiKiss.

Has the following summary been posted before (from this site, found via ANN):
"One night the Phantom Thief (the Gentleman Thief with Twenty Faces) steals a little girl. Her name is Chiko (Chizuko Mikamo). Until then, she had been a lonely girl. But that night , she embarks on a great adventure. Experiencing freedom for the very first time, surrounded by friends, finding a place where she can be herself, Chiko starts changing gradually. A string of bizarre events start happening, centering around the tremendous mystery called the "Legacy of the Phantom Thief" and involving people with pathetic motives. Chiko has to move on nevertheless...no matter how checkered her life will be. The "spiritual growth" of the dignified, innocent and beautiful girl, Chiko, (from the age of 11 to 13) is depicted in this action story that unfolds in a fast tempo. CHIKO, Heiress of the Phantom Thief is the first joint production between BONES (which produced Fullmetal Alchemist) and TELECOM ANIME (which produced Little Nemo and The Castle of Cagliostro--Lupin III)."

They've put a decent version of the TAF trailer up on the website. Looks grand. Could have benefited from a more meatier audio track though. Is that Aya Hirano singing? It's okay I suppose. A bit bland for my tastes.

It was really refreshing to watch something like this. The art direction, designs and colors were really retro, and the car chase was really well animated. A great throwback to the days before CG cars and stuff. Great motion. Overall it's a very promising start. Feels like the start of a fun light-hearted adventure novel.

In tone and look, it reminded me a lot of those older european flavored anime from the 80s, which were so prominent back then, but mostly non existant now (a few exceptions, I know). If you were able to watch those kind of shows as a kid, this will be a nice dose of nostalgia

As far as animation staff goes, as expected this is pretty much a Telecom production. BONES animated the OP and the character designer drew the ED, but even then they were directed and storyboarded by Telecom. A pretty solid collaboration I would say.

The OP shows her getting to kick ass as well and so they'll have to develop her from where she starts out in the first ep to that, just like some of you guys were saying she'd eventually become an active character, awesome. That will hopefully be some nice character development.

I didn't watch much of the first half since I'll save that for when I can understand it, but I loved the feel of the second half even without the dialogue. Cool car chase action and interesting music.

The guy's great and yeah he still reminds me of the awesome Roger Smith. This show could be really fun.

I wish the OP was a faster and more fitting song to go along with the action adventure imagery.

Hirano Aya does sound different in this show. Took me 5 minutes to figure out who was voicing Chiko, but her panting gave it away!

All in all, I was disappointed, expecting more from Bones, I guess. It doesn't feel fresh to me, it just feels Lupinesque, or more like Detective Conan's Kaitou Kidd growing old and kidnapping rich little girls. It simply didn't excite me. Perhaps later episodes will be more interesting, though. Chiko herself is certainly cute enough.